>> i think -- >> are you going to come back here? >> here's the question. are you going to come back here? >> we like to be respectful of one another and peaceful with one another and listen to each other. these ladies must not be from iowa or wisconsin. >> while mitt romney tried to downplay any differences between him and his new running mate. >> well, the items that we agree on, i think outweigh any differences that there may be. we haven't gone through piece by piece and said oh, here's a place where there's a difference. >> plus, what kept mike bloomberg from making a third party run? >> it's expensive. i mean, everybody says influence the dialogue. i didn't pay a lot to come here today. it's much better than running for president. the two party system, bill says the party's been destroyed. yeah, to some extent. but 45% are going to vote for romney and would vote for the

republican even if trotskey were the republican candidate and 45% would vote for obama and they would vote democrat even if sarah palin were the democratic candidate. >> we sit down with the new york city mayor, mike bloomberg, to talk politics and the economy and the big economic issue he says is being largely ignored by both sides. plus first lady michelle obama warning the golden girl away from the golden arches. >> after the competition, i splurged on egg mcmuffin. >> yeah, gabby, don't. i'm sure it was a whole wheat mcmuffin. >> on a whole wheat bun. egg mcmuffin. very good. >> you're setting me back, gabby. >> sorry. >> what would mike bloomberg say about those egg mcmuffins? good day. in our daily fix, battleground

blitz. the race to define paul ryan turns to five swing states. the president is wrapping up a bus tour event in iowa today while mitt romney campaigns in an ohio coal mine. vice president biden is barnstorming virginia and this hour, ryan stumps in colorado before heading to las vegas tonight. chris cillizza is an msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com. chris, they have the whole battleground covered and the race to define paul ryan. you can almost not recognize him from some of the things being said by both sides, pro and con. >> well, you know what's fascinating is that we forget sometimes here in washington that the country by and large has no idea who paul ryan is and certainly had no idea who he was before he got picked on saturday. now, that's changing rapidly. people are getting more familiar with his name. but i do think it's even more critical this definitional process. i think probably from now until the end of the republican convention, maybe until the end of the democratic convention, to define who he is. is he kind of a principled

reformer speaking hard truth or is he the guy who wants to end medicare, send it into a death spiral, a right wing idealogue, so it's a big fight and an important fight because remember, mitt romney chose paul ryan to represent something, that he represented big ideas, change, reform. if democrats can convince people that he represents ending medicare, that's a very different proposition politically. >> and joe biden on the stump today went in another direction, started talking as well about the whole banking issue. >> congressman ryan has now given definition to governor romney's vague commitments that he's been making the last year and congressman ryan and the congressional republicans as one person said have already done what governor romney is promising he'll do for the nation. it's almost like running against an incumbent. >> he complained that paul ryan would let the banks loose again

and get rid of banking regulations. there's a lot to unpack in that. >> yeah. look, we saw president obama do this yesterday. you and i were talking about it, talking about the drought relief bill and how it was being blocked by congressional republicans. they were both in iowa yesterday, president obama said if you see paul ryan, tell him to stop blocking this bill because it's important to iowa. what they're trying to do, by they i mean president obama, vice president biden and every other democratic strategist, they are trying to lay every unpopular thing congressional house republicans have done over the past two years and to be honest, if you look at polling, that's virtually everything they've done over the past two years, lay that at the feet of paul ryan but especially mitt romney and say you are now answerable for their actions, what do they know. they know that house republicans are about as popular as journalists and used car salesmen right now. they're very, very low down. they are trying to put that anchor on to mitt romney, the guy who remember built his entire presidential campaign on being an outsider to washington. >> one other point we should

make is a little more detail about the republican convention. the party has confirmed what we first reported about a month ago, that chris christie will indeed be the keynoter. marco rubio will be introducing the president. >> these -- >> excuse me, not the president. the candidate. >> i knew what you meant. these are two of the biggest stars, rising stars in the party who are not on the actual ticket. i think the christie pick is absolutely intriguing. this is a guy who if he had run for president probably would have been the front-runner over mitt romney. decided not to endorse mitt romney. he's a guy who has been elected in a blue state of new jersey in 2009, a guy who is kind of speaking hard truths, i'm going to be honest with you messaging. very clearly but between the pick of paul ryan as vp and the pick of chris christie as keynote, republicans are trying to send a message, we're going to be honest with you. you might not like everything we're saying but these are serious times that demands serious people who are willing to tell you the truth.

>> thank you so much for starting us off, chris cillizza. what is the clearest solution to the jobs crisis that no one is talking about? economists say immigration reform, that immigrants create more small businesses and new jobs than native-born americans. here in chicago today, new york mayor mike bloomberg launched a campaign along with former white house chief of staff bill daley to build support in the business community for the tough political decisions to reform immigration. >> well, nobody comes here to put their feet up and take welfare. that's just -- may play well on the stump but america is not a good place for that. there are plenty of other places where you can sleep in good weather and get food and not have to worry about it. america, and particularly cities like chicago and new york, these are tough competitive cities, and the only people that come here are people who want to give up everything, take risks and work hard. >> joining me now is new york city mayor mike bloomberg. we talked about it today, you talked about it, you're trying

to build political support for it. tell us why immigration is good for the economy. >> well, number one, the economy is the issue, at least that's what the self-styled experts say, and neither of the presidential candidates are talking about it. they should be talking about it, because the ways to fix the economy, the way to create jobs, the way to make sure that industries don't get developed overseas, to make sure that overseas universities don't catch up to us, is to have immigrants come here and do the things that we need to do, and it's at both ends of the economic spectrum. we need people to come here for seasonal labor because the bottom line is, no matter what anybody says, americans and it gets demonstrated time and time again, will not do those jobs. if those jobs aren't done, the crops rot in the fields, that's been true in the southeast. a lot of farms are moving to mexico because we don't have people here willing to do that back-breaking work that's low wages, but that's what it is. it's the only ways you're going to have low cost fruits and

vegetables, and if you can't get the labor, you just can't get the crops in so you're not going to grow them here. if those people were allowed to come here, they would create jobs because there's up the scale lots of things, delivery and handling and cleaning and inspections, that pay much better that get created if we have the seasonal workers. at the other end, we need the people who are going to invent the next best thing, will start the next company, the so-called science and technology, engineering and math graduates, the people who get ph.d.s. for every one of those that we have here, they create a whole bunch of jobs downscale so from both ends, the solution in america to more jobs is more immigrants and unfortunately, both candidates demagogue on this and say oh, no, no, no, there aren't enough jobs so we don't want immigrants. as long as that's the mentality, you will not have enough jobs and you are sowing the seeds for national suicide because the people that can start companies, the people that can create jobs,

if they can't get it here, they will go some place else. canada wants them in. can canada, most of the visas they give out are for the people they need to help their economy. in america, we give out too few visas and most are not to people who will help our economy. they are simply for people who happen to have connections because the there are a lot of their ethnicity in this country. a lot of family members are here. >> all of the studies, the study you just released today show that these immigrants are starting businesses at a higher rate than native-born americans, one in ten workers in the united states works for a firm started by an immigrant and we're talking about small businesses as well as fortune 500 companies. >> if you look at the candidates, they pander to their voting blocs but they don't address the real issue. that's not leadership. i've criticized both of them for it. same ways i've criticized them for not standing up and telling us what they're going to do about the scourge of guns in our

country next presidential term and four years, 48,000 americans will be killed with guns and not one word from either presidential candidate about what they're going to do about it. the same thing is true. i was listening to your comments and your commentator on paul ryan. i don't like most of what paul ryan suggests but at least he has a concrete plan. they're all sniping at him and i think the democrats are making a terrible mistake -- >> you mean plan on the budget. >> they are trying to frame this election about paul ryan, and in two days, they want the country to understand and in two days, all of these talking heads have made judgments and they know what's going to happen. if i were running for president, i would tell the public what i'm going to do rather than talk about what the other guy's going to do. in the end, you saw my comments this morning, 45% will vote for romney, 45% will vote for obama. that leaves 10% in the middle. that 10% isn't dogmatic or idealogical. they want answers to how they

will feed their families, how their kids will get into college, how they will keep their house, how there's going to be in their neighborhood people coming in and starting new stores and that sort of thing. i think this demagoguing and sending protesters to heckle somebody, that's old line politics and people think it works. doi not. i do not. >> you talked about guns. neither of the candidates are really talking about gun control. the president mentioned it briefly -- >> no, but the president, the president when he was running for office four years ago campaigned on i'm going to introduce a bill to stop people from having assault weapons. assault weapons are only used to kill people. they're not for anything else. then he didn't do anything. romney, same thing. he was governor of massachusetts when they passed an assault rifle ban which he signed and praised. gets into office, absolutely nothing. >> nearly 300 people have been killed by gun violence in the city of chicago in this year alone. people in chicago, it's one of the worst homicide rates -- >> we have 250 in new york with

a population roughly three times the size and 250 is 250 too many. in chicago, 300 is 300 too many. the only ways you're going to stop this carnage is to get guns out of the hands of criminals, drug addicts, people with psychiatric problems and children. second amendment gives you a right to have a weapon. i don't have any problems with that. i support the second amendment. i support states rights to set their own carry and permitting things. but the federal laws say those four categories can't own guns and if you do the polls, the vast majority of the public is in favor of that. even nra members and gun owners are in favor of those things. but congress refuses to give any enforcement ability to the federal government and in all fairness, the federal government at the executive branch hasn't gone out and worked very hard to do something about it. >> what about the nanny state and the controversy over the big gulps and everything else you tried to do in new york city, trans-fats, your health care

costs are down, you've got hard numbers to prove that people are healthier in new york city. >> in new york city, people are living three years longer than the average across america and that all has come in the last ten years. so you can call it what you will, but we have 8.4 million people that are living -- >> is that mostly tobacco? >> tobacco is one of the big things. lower murder rate, lower deaths by fire, lower deaths by traffic accidents, fewer trans-fats in their foods, bars on windows, seat belt enforcement, those dwi enforcement, those kind of things. it doesn't take away anybody's right to do anything. you just can't smoke where somebody else is going to breathe your smoke but if you want to go kill yourself and smoke, i'm protecting you. i said you have a righ to smoke. in the case of full sugared drinks, all we're trying to do is say you'll likely drink what's in front of you so don't allow in restaurants and movie

theaters to serve full sugared drinks in more than a 16 ounce cup. if you want to buy 32 ounces, i'm there to protect you. you want to buy 64 ounces, i'm there to protect you. you just have to take it in two or four cups. that is another thing that will help reduce obesity, and obesity for the first time in this world in the history of the world, more people are dying from being overweight than from starvation. this is the first disease that's gone from being a rich man's disease to a poor man's disease and it will bankrupt the country and i just want to make sure we get ahead of it. >> speaking of rich men just briefly, you made your money in business. mitt romney made his money in business. how do you feel about the way he's been characterized and what advice might you give him to defend what he did at bain capital? >> well, at bain capital, it's a business that's perfectly legal. i assume he did a good job. i never invested in bain capital. i'm not an insider there. i don't know. i can tell you this. mitt romney was a good governor of massachusetts when he was there and i'm surprised and

disappointed that he's walked away from a lot of the things he did. he actually put in a health care plan that worked. he made it work. then to walk away from it i think is sad but he thinks that's -- he changed his beliefs or maybe he's gotten political advice that says he should do that. what is interesting here is you now have two vice presidential candidates, both of whom have real opinions and stand out and say what they believe. paul ryan and joe biden. i respect both. i don't agree with either one on a lot of things but i respect both of them for having the courage to stand up and say what they believe. whether their bosses are happy about that, you'll have to ask their bosses. >> thanks so much. mike bloomberg, thanks very much for being with us today. immigration, immigration, immigration. >> you got it. >> we're on it. live from chicago, coming up next, from the obama campaign, stephanie cutter. still ahead from the romney campaign, former new hampshire governor john sununu. [ female announcer ] did you know the average person smiles

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now he wants to get re-elected. he knows to do so he's got to win ohio. and to win ohio, he's got to win eastern ohio. and he's got to get the votes of the people in these communities all around us here. and you're not going to let that happen because you're going to keep our jobs, you're going to keep ohio strong and bring back america. >> mitt romney taking political swings at the president just a few minutes ago in ohio, pushing ahead on his campaign bus tour. nbc's peter alexander is in ohio and joins me now. hey, peter. the latest attack lines today. >> reporter: well, andrea, first i want to give you a sense, we'll tell you exactly where we are. this is the ohio river valley. this is coal mine country.

these folks have been holding up signs that say coal country stands with mitt. we are standing about 400 feet above some of those mining tunnels that snake beneath the ground. some of the miners say they are concerned there is a war on coal taking place. they fear president obama is pursuing greener energies and turning his back on communities like this one. romney taking the stage a short time ago at a coal site where the owner of this place says that he's been forced to do dozens if not hundreds of layoffs because of federal regulations enforced and created by this new -- the obama administration. a conversation i had with one man, a guy, 36-year-old, spoke to him, he's been working here for six years. he said without coal, this place would be a ghost town. that's the priority of a lot of people here. according to governor romney, it's his priority to make sure that doesn't take place. clearly trying to go right after president obama who today is focusing on a different energy state or state with a different energy policy of sorts, focused on wind in the state of iowa.

>> peter, what is presidential candidate saying today about arguments over medicare and whether or not there are any differences between his position and paul ryan's position? >> reporter: it's a good question. there is very little conversation about medicare today. but we did have a chance on the tarmac before we left florida late yesterday to talk to him about the medicare plan and also specifically about paul ryan's plan. we asked are there any differences between your plan and between paul ryan's plan. he made it very clear there are no differences but it appears to be increasingly clear that there is a difference when it relates to $716 billion paul ryan, who would cut out that $716 billion from medicare, like the president's plan as part of obama care and mitt romney disagrees with that. >> to be continued. peter alexander out on the trail, thanks for taking time. president obama did once call paul ryan's budget and medicare plan quote, a bold proposal. now he's using the plan as a

political weapon, slamming republicans. here's what the president said to the republican caucus two years ago. >> if the main question is going to be what do we do about medicare costs, any proposal that paul makes will be painted fa factually from the perspective of those who disagree with it as cutting benefits over the long term. i don't think you disagree with that, that there is a political vulnerability to doing anything that tinkers with medicare and that's probably the biggest savings that are obtained through paul's plan, and i raise that not because we shouldn't have a serious discussion about it. i raise that because we're not going to be able to do anything about any of these entitlements if what we do is characterize whatever proposals are put out there as well, you know, that's the other party's being irresponsible. the other party's trying to hurt

our senior citizens. >> stephanie cutter is president obama's deputy campaign manager and joins me now live in chicago. as the tour boat goes by on the river behind us. thanks very much. >> thanks for having me. >> your response to what president obama clearly said, he was speaking to the republican caucus and he was very clear that we should not be demagoguing medicare, that that's where the money is, that's what we have to cut, that's what he proposed cutting in his health care plan. he's under attack for that. >> i think that was before health care passed. so the issue on the table was we have to do something about medicare, what is it that we can do. the president actually strengthened medicare through the affordable care act. we extended the life of the medicare trust fund by eight years. we expanded benefits for seniors and saved them money. but we also cut some of the waste out of the system and some of that waste, big subsidies, big taxpayer subsidies to insurance companies to provide the same benefits at a higher cost to seniors under medicare advantage.

so what the president did is looked at the system as a whole and figured out where to cut waste but also to do that in a way that doesn't put it on the backs of seniors. we actually enhanced benefits for seniors. we closed the doughnut hole loophole so they're saving hundreds of dollars each year on prescription drugs. they now get preventive care with no out of pocket costs. that's because of the work the president did through the affordable care act. >> the cuts that he is being criticized for right now are really slowing the rate of growth and taking it out -- not out of the beneficiaries but out of the providers. >> absolutely. and delivery system reforms that ensure everybody plays by the same set of rules. there's always waste, fraud and abuse in government programs. it's the lowest rate under this administration because the president has made it a priority to cut waste, to prevent abuse. we've had the highest number of medicare fraud prosecutions under this administration. it's the same rate of growth, we're both slowing the rate of growth under what the president has done, under what paul ryan wants to do, it's just how you do it. exactly what you said. you either do it on the backs of

seniors or you do it in common sense, cost-effective ways by cutting waste out of the system, ensure everybody plays by the same rules. >> speaking to the republican caucus, he was saying that you have to take money out of this system. now it seems that democratic surrogates all over the country are going after paul ryan for trying to do exactly that. >> well, precisely. because it's not taking money out of the system. it's where you're going to find savings. the only place that paul ryan finds savings is by increasing costs on seniors. that's not a way to strengthen medicare, to ensure seniors get the care they need and can stay healthy. >> i want to also ask you about something that joe biden said out on the campaign today. let's take a look at something joe biden was saying about banking regulation. >> romney wants to -- he said in the first hundred days, he's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. unchain wall street. they're going to put y'all back in chains. >> now, back in chains i guess

is what the romney campaign is now objecting to strongly, saying that it is a new low, that it is a suggestion that is not acceptable in political discourse. president obama should tell the american people this is from your counterpart, whether he agrees with joe biden's comments. >> i think he probably agrees wi joe biden's sentiments. he's using a metaphor -- >> sentiments is different from comments. >> look, i appreciate the faux outrage from the romney campaign. if you want to talk about the use of words, then take a look at mitt romney's stump speech where he basically calls the president un-american. so does andrea agree with that language? >> without defending or criticizing that, let's get back to the question of when you said the president agrees with the sentiments, are you saying that the vice president went too far -- >> no, i'm not. >> -- and that the president does not agree with the words that he used? >> if you look at the entire context of what the vice president was talking about, he was making a point that if we repeal wall street reform which

is what mitt romney and paul ryan want to do, we go back to the days where they write their own rules. we saw what happened. taxpayers had to bail them out. we had to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars bailing them out. i would think that that, you know, that is a problem for middle class taxpayers. that would hamper their ability to take care of their own finances. >> is the bottom line that the president agrees with joe biden's sentiments but not his comments? >> bottom line is that we have no problem with those comments. those comments in the full context of them. and we can play a game with the romney campaign of pulling these things out of context. we saw how that ended up for them over the past couple weeks. but what the vice president was talking about, if you look at those remarks is that there is a consequence to repealing wall street reform. we will go back to the days where they write their own rules. we saw how that worked out. they crashed our financial system and taxpayers had to pick up the pieces. we don't want to go back there. >> have to leave it there. stephanie cutter, thank you very much. thanks for being here. up next, the politico

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if you're going to do something. make it matter. welcome back. in today's politico briefing, are republicans secretly fretting over mitt romney's choice of paul ryan as his running mate? what do republican insiders think about the choice? joining me now, john harris, politico's editor in chief. we hear a lot of praise for this gutsy choice, as they put it, of paul ryan and the fact that he has given energy to the candidate, mitt romney. romney clearly was an improved candidate on the road with ryan this weekend. but what are republicans telling politico behind the scenes? >> well, three reporters who you know and i think have sat in this very chair, jonathan martin, alex byrnes and maggie haberman, went out to fill up their notebooks, talking to republican political professionals in washington saying let's cut to the chase, what do you really think about this pick, is it a wise one, what are the risks, and what

they found is that when they talked to people on background and let's emphasize they're not willing, most of them, to attach their names to this criticism, but when you talk the people on background, the skepticism, in some cases the fear or panic about this pick is palpable. it's overwhelming. >> is that because of medicare, is it because of the ryan budget that ryan among the candidates was specific about controversial things? >> it is largely not exclusively, but largely the medicare issue. what it comes down to is if you look at older voters, in particular older white voters, right now, they overwhelmingly default toward romney as the republican. many of these people are very disappointed with president obama. they are a critical swing bloc in this election. if a ryan pick somehow takes that political asset away from mitt romney or even just neutralizes it, then it really has devastating political consequences. >> as we have been talking, john

harris, we've got tour boats going below so i'm not rocking here with a disco behind me. it is the tour boats on the chicago river. thanks very much. >> sounds fun. >> it's great fun. we always like to get to the great windy city. thanks, john. >> see you soon. >> battle over medicare teed up there. up next, from the romney campaign, former new hampshire governor john sununu. quiet, soft-spoken, will be here next. my cut hurt! mine hurt more! mine stopped hurting faster... [ female announcer ] neosporin® plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com. until i got a job in the big apple. becoming a fulltime indoor cat wasn't easy for atti. but he had purina cat chow indoor. he absolutely loved it. and i knew he was getting everything he needed

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to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye-care experts at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. [ male announcer ] ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. now, that's a pill worth taking. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. we're here in the chicago area, where the obama campaign is headquartered. they are ramping up their criticism of paul ryan. here is deputy campaign advisor stephanie cutter with me just earlier this hour, discussing medicare plans. >> it's not taking money out of the system. it's where you're going to find savings and the only place that paul ryan finds savings is by increasing costs on seniors.

that's not a way to strengthen medicare to ensure seniors get the care they need. >> joining me now is former new hampshire governor john sununu, a surrogate for the romney campaign and of course, the former chief of staff to president george herbert walker bush. thanks for being with us. >> nice to be with you again. >> always good to see you. like to give you a chance to respond to stephanie cutter. >> look, can you imagine how much gall it takes for the democrats, stephanie cutter and barack obama, who have made lifetime careers out of demagoguing the medicare issue, who cut that medicare ad on paul ryan, to now express concern that the republicans are pointing out that the only person that ever put into place a law that cut money out of medicare and hurt seniors is barack obama, with his $700 billion plus cut in medicare. it's unbelievable. the hypocrisy, the double language, if you will, and

frankly, the dishonesty. this is the same stephanie cutter that acknowledged a few days ago that there was this $700 billion plus cut and she was saying it was quite an achievement. >> let me break down a couple of points here. i know we will then engage but let me ask the question. that $700 billion is the same amount of money approximately that's in the ryan budget plan. those are the same cuts. what the difference is as cutter was just pointing out is that the president's health care plan takes it away from providers largely, not from beneficiaries, and it in fact is not a quote cut in traditional republican terms, because it is simply slowing the rate of growth, the rate of increase, in medicare spending. now, have at it. >> look, it takes away from providers in a way that they will provide less services. that means it takes it away from the seniors. secondly, it takes it away from subsidizing medicare advantage which means it takes it away

from the seniors. what she told you is just not true. the second point is much more important. these folks are out there now trying to take a plan that has substance to it and certainly running ads now condemning the very same things that they applaud in their own plan. it's insane. >> governor romney was trying to say that there was not much difference between his plans and paul ryan's plans. is paul ryan, having been this specific, you know, this is his reputation, he did vote for increases in spending, he voted for the unfunded prescription drug benefit, he voted for t.a.r.p., he voted for the auto bailout but in terms of this year's budgets, he's been very specific. he's the budget chairman. isn't that a virtue that mitt romney should be embracing? >> well, there are virtues to specificity but remember, mitt romney's at the top of the

ticket. ryan is the vice president. mitt romney likes paul ryan's plan. it's a good plan. mitt romney thinks his plan is better, and there certainly are differences that are real. the democrats are going to try and pretend there are no differences but there are some and the governor and paul ryan will define those clearly over the next couple of days. i just think it's amazing, the democrats think they're going to get a pass on everything. biden comes out with this outrageous comment and i guess we're supposed to ignore it. that's ridiculous. >> let me ask you about that comment by the vice president. i asked stephanie cutter about it. she said in context, the president agrees with his sentiments. whether or not she agrees or the president agrees with his specific words. what is your objection, let me just give you a chance to say so, on what the vice president said about putting you back in chains? >> well, there's going to be folks across the country that will try and take that as some

kind of code word that is going to suggest that the republicans are trying to be racial in their programs. that's ridiculous. >> what again do you think the paul ryan choice brings to this ticket? >> look, it brings a smart man. it brings a man with backbone and courage and guts. it creates a team of two guys that are notfraid of making the hard decisions and are smart enough to determine what the hard decisions are. we have had an administration that on the hard issues has done nothing. we have the worst recovery in 75 years. we have 25 million americans out of work, 8.3% unemployment. those are the issues that we ought to be talking about. you met with mayor bloomberg. he says nobody's talking about the economy. he hasn't been listening to mitt romney. >> oh, he has been. he has been, but -- >> then he hasn't heard anything. because he's been talking about -- >> with all respect, he's saying

that mitt romney and barack obama are not addressing immigration reform which could be the single biggest driver of job creation if they could deal with it and deal with the visa problems that we have to getting both low wage and highly educated immigrants -- >> and legal immigration is the life blood of this country but it is not going to solve the current 8.3% unemployment problem mitt romney's been talking about that. it's not going to address the lack of incentives for investment in this country. mitt romney's been talking about that. it is not going to deal with the fact that small businesses are being accused of not building their own business. mitt romney's been talking about that. those issues are just as important or more important than what mayor bloomberg's favorite issue of the day is. >> what mayor bloomberg is saying, this is not just a favorite issue of the day because he has been on this for years, speaking out about it, he called it national suicide a year ago june. what he is saying is the way to

get small businesses started is to let more immigrants in because immigrants are now creating more businesses, small and large, than native born americans. >> nobody objects to legal immigration. everyone supports it. and if he doesn't understand that, he's got a problem. everyone supports legal immigration. both obama and mitt romney to their credit support legal immigration. >> governor sununu, to be continued. thanks for joining us again today. >> thank you. is the ryan choice a game changer? what about that word? this is paul ryan live at a campaign event in colorado. coming up, mark halperin and ruth marcus get to the root of that definition. with the spark cash card from capital one, sven's home security gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right?

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his running mate. former advisor to john mccain is joining our political panel. also tomorrow, more than 1.6 million undocumented immigrants will get the chance to begin to live and work legally in this country as a presidential executive order goes into effect. congressman gutierrez will join me live 15 minutes away. have you heard the latest mash-up? everyone is calling it an ear worm. no idea what i just said? you'll have to go to the merriam webster dictionary to look up the new words, words like ear worm and mash-up join the list, including bucket list, man-cave and game changer. well, that was popularized by the book of the same name describing the 2008 presidential race and the co-author, mark halperin is part of our panel today. also senior political analyst with msnbc and "time" magazine and joining us as well, ruth marcus, "washington post"

editorial writer. so how does it feel to be in the dictionary, mark? >> it feels kind of weird. thank you for asking. >> let's talk about, speaking of mash-ups, let's talk about what happened today and all of the fighting over medicare, pro and con. mark, first to you, then ruth. where do we stand today as everyone tries to define paul ryan before he can define himself? >> well, to me, the big issue is medicare. i've been surprised at apparently what little preparation the romney team did in getting ready for this issue. they did a great job, i thought, in the first 36, 48 hours rolling out paul ryan, but they're not really on top of not just medicare but the whole ryan budget and i suspect that within 48 hours, we'll see a lot of advertising on the air going after both ryan and romney on issues like medicare and tax cuts to the wealthiest americans that could really define this race even before the republicans have their convention. >> i was at a conference this

morning with mike bloomberg, as you know, and the former white house chief of staff bill daley weighing in on the choice of paul ryan. he said it's a high risk thing for him. everyone likes it, democrats like it, republicans like it. i think it's probably three weeks away from really deciding whether this was a brilliant choice that reframes the election, the debate, raises a bit or doesn't end up being more about the ryan budget than a romney budget which hadn't really been presented yet. that was bill daley, still one of the smartest people in politics. ruth, which way do you think it's going? >> i've said from the beginning that i think this is risky to the point of foolhardy. i think just to get to mark's new word in terms of game change, this is or at least poses the risk of being sarah palin with substance and a paper trail, and i think you asked about paul ryan defining

himself. i think that the difficulty for the romney campaign is that paul ryan is already so well-defined, there are so many things to talk about, the viewpoints and policy positions he's expressed and i think as with mark, the really surprising thing is thing is th romney campaign made a decision, governor romney made a decision to pick paul ryan. so you have three choices. you can embrace him and the ryan plan which is obviously the most sensible thing to do because you've picked him. you can separate out a few particular areas where you disagree but say generally we're on the same page but i'm the boss so i win. or do what they're doing now, sort of muddling along saying we kind of disagree but we mostly agree and leave it up to people to make a decision. that just seems crazy. >> president obama was out on the road. while we've been talking about medicare which is arguably a big issue, the president seemed to make -- have issued a dig at governor romney's dog, shamus, a

short time ago. criticizing mitt romney for wanting to end tax credits for wind energy production. let's watch. >> that's what he said about wind power. you can't drive a car with a windmill on it. now, i -- i don't know if he's actually tried that. i know he's had other things on his car. >> seemed to be an ad lib there. what are we devolving to, mark? >> it's hard to know exactly why the president chose to go that route. i will say one of the impacts of the ryan announcement are not only are democrats happy with it but they have their confidence back. just in talking to democrats, watching the body language of democrats on television, they now think, i believe, they've gone back to a position where they expect to win this race. i think the president's been first among equals in his camp of being confident he would win. but i think now they feel like their plan to go after medicare, taxes for the wealthy, now has a peg from here to eternity.

that's what they wanted. >> or from here to november. look, the president, that was just too tempting with the windmill on the car. too tempting not to make the dog reference. you know, i probably wouldn't have been able to resist it myself. >> with a hat tip to gail collins of the "new york times." >> with a hat tip to my colleague, gail collins at "the new york times." >> we've got to leave it there. we visit this -- we visit this soon. thanks so much. ruth marcus, mark halperin. what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." ll, but we're imperfect creatures living in a beautifully imperfect world. it's amazing we've made it this far. maybe it's because when one of us messes up, someone else comes along to help out. that's the thing about humans. when things are at their worst, we're at our best. see how at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy?

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? chris cillizza is back. we've got paul ryan going into battle. you think there's by a citing of shelden addison? >> according to -- will be at the private briefing for the ryan visit to nevada. we know colorado, november

novembe -- nevada, north carolina, iowa. it's a remarkable thing. he's going to swing states. very targeted. they're trying to capitalize on that energy, andrea, that early energy they've gotten from him being announced as vp. >> chris cillizza. that does it for us. this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." jose is next on news nation. >> coming up next, republican vp candidate paul ryan out campaigning in colorado as some republicans are second guessing mitt romney for choosing ryan as his money mate. i'll talk to congressman luis gutierrez of illinois about a big day for illegal immigrants. a presidential executive order goes into effect. that and a whole lot more next on "news nation." when i found out my irregular heartbeat

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